RUFFED GROUSE. 101 



they mean to those who love them ? The promise of 

 Sj)ring, its fiilfiUmsnt in summer, is clearly told in Bob- 

 white's greeting. Then, in the autumn, when the mem- 

 bers of a scattered bevy are signaling each other, their 

 sweet where are you f where are you ? is equally associated 

 with the season. 



Tlie Bob- white nests about May 20, laying from ten 

 to eighteen white eggs in a nest on the ground. 



The Ruffed Grouse, or Partridge of the North and 

 Pheasant of the South, is properly a true Grouse, and 

 Ruffed Grouse ^^^ ^^^^ ^® correctly called either Par- 

 Bonasa umbeiius. tridge or Pheasant. He is a more 

 Plate XII. northern bird than the Bob-white, be- 



ing found south of Virginia only in the Alleghanies. 

 Requiring large tracts of woodland for his haunts, he 

 is less generally distributed and not so common as his 

 plump relative. 



I always associate the Grouse with the astounding 

 roar of wings made by the bird as he springs from the 

 ground at my feet and sails away through the forest. I 

 watch him at first with dazed surprise, then with a keen 

 sense of pleasure in the meeting. One need not be a 

 sportsman to appreciate the garainess of the Grouse. 



To find a hen Grouse with young is a memorable 

 experience. While the parent is giving us a lesson in 

 mother-love and bird intelligence, her downy chicks are 

 teaching us facts in protective coloration and heredity. 

 How the old one limps and flutters ! She can barely 

 drag herself along the ground. But while we are watch- 

 ing her, what has become of the ten or a dozen little 

 yellow balls we almost stepped on ? Not a feather do 

 we see, until, poking about in the leaves, we find one 

 little chap hiding here and another squatting there, all 

 perfectly still, and so like the leaves in color as to be 

 nearly invisible. 



